I love playing in my studio and seeing where my muse has taken me at the end of the day. I enjoy most all things vintage and love scouting out tiny little shops where you never know what you may stumble upon. I am also learning Photoshop and it seems to be taking over all my creative time, love it. I love playing with my border collie and golden retriever, they are a huge bright spot in my life. We have a new addition Max, a sweet little maltese that we rescued, he is so cute and full of it. I am happy that you flew into my nest. You are always welcome and I enjoy your comments.I have a huge update that I am so excited about. Tom and I have decided to open our own little gift and consignment shop. We are calling it The Gathering Nest Gifts & Consignment. We will be located at 6 Clarence St. West, Port Colborne, ON Canada. If you are in are area drop by and browse the nest, it will be full of everything vintage and lots of unique gifts and collectibles. We will also be carrying lots of goodies for the mixed media artists. We would love to see you.

The Gathering Nest Gifts & Consignment

Thanks Karen

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Friday, December 31, 2010

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Hoping 2011 will be the best year ever.

My granddaughter came over and spent the day with me yesterday. We had so much fun playing with photoshop, eating all the stuff we shouldn't be eating and playing with my ipad. Fun!!!! Here is what Alexandra created while playing in photoshop. I just now noticed that she didn't sign it so we will have to fix that when she comes back. I am wondering if the sweet child doesn't think I am a little wacky. I love, love my ipad so much that I have been getting kids books to read and watch on it...lol..they are just so awesome. Anyways I had to give up my ipad while she was here so I grabbed the iphone and played with it. I noticed that I had Twas the night before Christmas book on it so I clicked it and told it to play and read to me. She just sat there looking at me like I had gone over the edge or something..lol...hmmm...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Sending you all warm holiday greetings for a bright and beautiful season. I am starting to get excited now that it is getting closer. Such a busy time of year with all the hustle and bustle of running here and there, friends gathering and getting ready for Santa's visit. I am actually exhausted today but think I have everything pretty much ready to go. It will be fun having family and friend get together's tomorrow and tomorrow night and then I always look forward to Christmas Day and celebrating with our children and grandchildren. I tried not to go overboard this year on the gift giving and remembering why we are really celebrating this day! I have to apoligize for not visiting my bloggie friends, everyday I think I am going to get there and I just never make it. I will be finding more time once we get the holidays over and hope you will forgive me for not visiting. I value the special friendships and bonds I have made here in blogland and I am looking forward to many visits in 2011.

Merry Christmas!!!

10 Lords Leaping

﻿we had to make an overlay for today, mine turned out pretty much plain but I am a plain kinda girl so that is good with me...Most elements by Lorrie Davison-The Grey House Manor and some by Studio Manu -Vintage Christmas.

Day 9 was the day we had to blend two photos together that Digital Whisper team supplies and play with filters.

Day 8 we had to make our own snowflakes. I wasn't happy with mine so you won't find many of them..lol...

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

For the 6th day we had to feather our own background and have a feather in it or all over it or whatever one decided on. I was not crazy about this challenge and really not up for putting a feather in at all...lol...but that is what I did..one feather, one..hehehe...no collage for day six. On day 7 we had to use the princess and swan that they gave us and our background. Hmmmm....I wasn't all that impressed with my background as I hadn't made my very own before but away I went. Here is the end result.

Day 7﻿

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Background for Day 6﻿

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Hope everyone is getting ready for Santa! He is getting closer and closer.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Day 5 and we are off and running with the golden rings..hehehe... I had so much fun making this shadow box for this challenge. I cheated though!!!! We were suppose to make the rings and I didn't have much luck with that so gave up after an hour of getting nothing created and just plain cheated...lol...

All elements by Bisontine from Esprit de noel today!!!

I have been busy the last couple of days with holiday STUFF!!! My hubby has to go away today so I am looking forward to doing nothing but wrapping the last few gifts, staying in my jammies and creating Day 6. ﻿Oh happy day!!!!

Friday, December 17, 2010

The task at hand today was using the sweet little birdie photo and applying filters! Fun!!!
Once I got my bird out I applied the photo filter and then used the brush stroke filter accented edges on them. All elements used today are from Rebecca McQueen at ScrapbookGraphics & the bird from Digital Whisper Group. Another fun project! I like the fact that they are making us use all the different goodies in our program.
Happy Friday!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Well I have to tell you that I had no idea what the 12 days of Christmas was going to be like when I joined over at Digital Whispers. It is very challenging, but fun. Today we had to made a set of wings!!! Hmmm...I have never made wings before but off I went to try and see what I could come up with. Better yet, I have had a Wacom tablet for over a year and really didn't bother to play with it much and every tutorial I seen for making the wings said you have to use a pen to create these. Great!!!!! Out comes the Wacom and away we go. Now that it is out maybe I will use it a bit more. LOL...Why, oh why do we have to have everything that we see people using??? Are we all like this or is it just silly ole me???

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I am playing the twelve days of Christmas over at Digital Whisper. It started yesterday and goes for the next 12 days. Yesterday we had to make a tree out of photoshop brushes, not one of my fav things to do...lol...Today we had to colorize a b/w photo, more my kind of fun..

Hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit and having lots of fun shopping, baking and creating.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

I have been busy the last little bit readying things for Christmas. Such a busy time of the year, but oh so beautiful. I have a habit of clean, clean, clean, decorate a little, clean some more, do a little shopping, more decorating, write out Christmas cards (boy is that time consuming), more cleaning and try to stop myself from looking at another decoration. I always feel bad because honestly I never have time to make any Christmas cards but sure would love to one of these years. Maybe a person should actually start in February to prepare for the following December.

I thought I would share a little of my Christmas decorating fun with you, haven't posted in ages and didn't want you all to think I have fallen off the earth...lol...So here is a bit of what I have happening at my home for my family and friends.

A few goodies in my art room.

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Next up are a few pretties in my dining room.

Gingerbread in the kitchen for sure.

Family room pretties.

My family thinks that I am a bit weird with this black tree, but I love it...

and I like weird, so there...hehehe..

Just a little collage that I put together digitally this morning. All elements from Rebecca McMeen.